El Mañana
by Noodle G. Stefani
Summary: It was El Mañana, it was her floating island Paradise, it meant the morning, it also meant tomorrow. This was because when driving through 'Slow Country', one must drive at 1,000 miles an hour. If one does not drive this speed, 'Tomorrow Will Come Today'. This is sort of what happened when El Mañana went down, 'Tomorrow Came Today"!
1. El Mañana

**El Mañana (The Morning) (Tomorrow):**

It was El Mañana, it was her floating island Paradise, it meant the morning, it also meant tomorrow. This was because when driving through 'Slow Country', one must drive at 1,000 miles an hour. If one does not drive this speed, 'Tomorrow Will Come Today'. This is sort of what happened when El Mañana went down, 'Tomorrow Came Today"!

The band had recently finished filming "Feel Good Inc.", and she was on her island floating off to somewhere. She had been floating around for a few weeks wandering aimlessly until she could find her way back to the Gorillaz HQ: Kong Studios. This particular day was very beautiful, warm but not too hot or too cold. It was late in the afternoon, and she was sitting on the island with the wind blowing through her perfect blackish purple hair. She had been laying in the lush green grass for hours just soaking up the sun. Then she decided to sit up and just look out and around at her surroundings. She sat there for a few minutes, then she picked up a flower from the grass next to her. She then got up and with the flower in hand, walked over to the front edge of her island. She stood there, looked out, looked down, holding the flower out in her hand, and then dropped it right off the edge. In doing so, she whispered "Goodbye little flower have a nice flight, I'll miss you. Sayōnara chīsana hana ga sutekina hikō o motte iru, watashi wa anata o nogashite shimau." Then she turned her head to her right and saw two fighter planes rounding the corner, heading towards the island. Then she shrugged it off, and walked back to where she had been sitting and sat back down in the warm lush green grass. And just as she sat down, one of the planes started firing shots at her and at the island. She got up and started running towards the entrance to the giant windmill that sat atop her island and allowed for the whole contraption to float in the sky. She was running into the windmill and was becoming very scared, very, very scared. She ran into the windmill, and sat down right inside next to the door. As she was sitting there, the planes shots got closer and started putting holes in the windmill right above and next to where she was sitting. At this her sacredness became full on terror. The island kept floating on, and she kept sitting with her legs pressed up against her, her arms hugging them, and her head in her arms/legs. She could feel the island getting weaker, but she was unsure of what to do. As the seconds turned to minutes, and the minutes to hours, she became even more terrified of what would become of her and her precious floating island paradise El Mañana. She eventually felt brave enough to take a look and aces the dammage. She crawled over to the opened door of the windmill and looked out upon a darkening sky full of grey-black smoke and starting small orange-red-yellow flames. She then got up and popped her head out the door to really see what was going on. The island was in worse shape than when the fireing had started, the blades and roof were smoking and seriously melting from the heat of the fire. One even fell off and fell towards whatever ground was beneath. The planes were circling the island waiting for her to come out, but she was too scared to come out from the safeish haven the windmill was becomming. They kept fireing and waiting and circling, but she wasn't going to come out. She had now braved it to come outside, but she was getting fired at by many planes. She quickly ran back inside the shelter of the now in flames windmill. The planes dipped closer to take better aim and fire, and out of the corner of her eyes, she saw none other than Paula Cracker. One of her bandmates exgirlfriends. She was there trying to get revenge on the Little Japanese guitarist for "stealing" her place in the band. The Little guitarist then kept running towards the windmill for protection. The windmill was now completly on fire, being engulfed by flames. She started running up the stairs once she was inside, and the island started plummeting towards whatever land was beneath. The stairs had colapsed underneath her and she was now lying on the cold hard floor of the windmill, helpless, while the planes kept fireing and circling. Debris kept falling on her as she tried to get up from her spot. She managed to get up, but could see that she was covered in cuts and bruises. Now the whole island, even the trees and grass were on fire. She looked out the window, and her facial expression was less than impressed. The island started plummeting faster towards land, and the planes swopped in even closer. From Paula's plane, she could see the plane plummet downward towards the cold hard Earth. The guitarist had gotten up and was straddling the door frame, she was forced to let go because a broken board was comming right towards her face. The next thing the pilots and the Little Japanese girl saw was El Mañana plummeting towards a very Deep, very dark, very narrow canyon. The next thing the girl heard was rock grinding against rock, and the floating island not floating but falling. Then one of the planes followed the island into the canyon, and watched as it hit the ground and burned to a crisp. The plane circled back around and headed back up to meet the other, and then both pilots pushed buttons and out dropped two bombs that fell unto the island and went off. Then somewhere off in the distance a tall, thin, gap-toothed, Blue haired, head dented, scared and bruised man, named Stuart "2D' Pot screamed "Noodle, No" from the appartment he was being forced to live in by his bandmate Murdoc Alphonce Faust Niccals. He sensed that his sister, best friend, almost daughter, and Japanese guitarist bandmate was in trouble, but he had no idea why or how or any idea of what to do. Then the planes made one last circle and were off, a job well done for them!


	2. Prologue

As the floating island was going down off in the distance, unseen by the planes, was a little Japanese guitarist with a parachute who had just jumped off her floating island paradise. She was able to escape near death, and made it out okay. She landed roughly on the hard rocky ground of the plateau near the canyon that contained the wreckage of her smoking flaming island. She got up, unhooked her parachute, brushed off the dust, checked her wounds, and then started walking. She walked for days, weeks, months, maybe even years. But she finally made it back to the band's HQ: Kong Studios. When she got there, she found the place in shambles. It was close to catching on fire, what was it with all of her beloved things catching on fire lately, and it was overrun with even more zombies than the last time. She made it, miraculously, past the zombies and into Kong. She found a walkie-talkie sitting next to the TV in the living room, and turned the nob to try and get a signal. She managed to get a partial signal, and she heard the voices of her three other bandmates on the other end. Stuart "2D" Pot, Russel Hobbs, and Murdoc Alphonce Faust Niccals were all talking about leaving for a Plastic Beach or something like that, but she couldn't quite make out what was being said. She pushed the TALK button on the walkie-talkie and said this into it: "Murdoc! Russel... Is anybody there?! It's me, Noodle... Is anybody there! You need to reply... Helllloooo! Come in... It's Noodle... I've found the missing... They're coming! ...(quieter) the reception here is really terrible... (Back to normal volume) MURDOC! ... Murdoc! Come in! They know where you... Mur... It's coming from... Murdoc MADAY...MADAY... Murdoc! COME IN GORILLAZ!" she was hoping that her bandmates would hear her but they did not. She left Kong, helpless and devastated returning to the El Mañana wreckage to die. She went to a very deep, very dark place that day. Hell. Later on, a year or so later, her base playing bandmate Murdoc Niccals would enter hell using his and their drum playing bandmate Russel Hobbs' demons, all to save the little Japanese guitarist. When she returned, she and 2D made two masks. One was a green eyed cat, because she has green eyes, and a clown named Stylo, because some say that 2D looks like a clown. Really only Murdoc says that. She could not take the pressure of everything that was going on, so she left. She went to Japan and stayed with an old friend of hers Mr. Kyuzo. Upon her staying only a few weeks, he became very sick and died, but he had left everything to her. She soon left Japan on a cruise ship and was seen heading towards that Plastic Beach or whatever her friends/bandmates had been talking about the day she sent out her distress signal from the Kong studios basement. On her way there, the ship was attacked by the same planes from the island shooting, minus Paula. Apparently the planes were Japanese military planes who wanted to take back the little failed science experiment Japanese guitarist so that the last of a failed DNA altered super soldier child army would finally be gone. They shot down her ship, but she escaped on a small yellow life boat with only the clothes on her back, her mask, an rpg, and her little green Melodica. While she was still on the ship, shooting at the planes, a large fleet of submarines appeared. In one of those subs were three people, Murdoc Niccals, 2D, and the robot Murdoc had built to replace the little Japanese guitarist. They instantly recognized her because of her mask. This is because when she and 2D made their masks, they made them together so that they would be able to recognize each other anytime anywhere. She eventually found a supersized full of radioactive fish Russel Hobbs and together they escaped to Plastic Beach to meet up with 2D and Murdoc. Very shortly after their arrival, the guitarist told the band the whole story on her return to Japan. How Mr. Kyuzo died and left her everything and how she became super rich. And even how the last thing she did before coming to the beach was have Kong Studios rebuilt. The bandmates were so ecstatic that they instantly left the Plastic Beach. They could not go straight to Kong though, because it was still being built. So they quickly found an appartment at 212 Wobble Street, London England, but they got evicted within only a few months. This was perfect timing though, because by the time they got evicted Kong was finished being rebuilt and they could finally go home. Home to the birthplace of the Gorillaz, the heart and soul of their band and their albums.

**A Note on Noodle:**

Noodle spent a portion of her childhood in Japan as a subject of a classified Japanese super soldier project under the management of the Japanese scientist, Mr. Kyuzo. Noodle, along with the 22 other children were trained with the sole purpose of fighting as soldiers of the Japanese military and government. After the children were deemed too dangerous and unstable for combat, the project was scrapped. Mr. Kyuzo was then ordered to dispose of all possible traces of the failed experiment, as well as its participants. After killing the other 22 children, Kyuzo was reluctant in killing Noodle. Rather than killing her, Kyuzo placed her in a state of amnesia through use of verbal commands. The phrase used to place Noodle in her state of amnesia was known as, _Ocean Bacon_. After temporarily clearing her memory of the project, Kyuzo smuggled Noodle to the United Kingdom in a FedEx crate and falsely reported her death (along with the other 22 children) to his superiors. Noodle arrived at the doorstep of Kong Studios in 2000. Once the crate was taken inside, Noodle sprung out of the box and performed a guitar solo (which 2D described as _"200 demons screaming in Arabic. Brilliant!"_). She ended her solo with a 20ft hi-karate kick before bowing and saying the word "Noodle". This resulted with her earning the name "Noodle" (her only currently known name), and replacing Paula Cracker as the band's lead guitarist.


End file.
